Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128145
Red Bull Yamaha's John Hopkins By PAUL CARRUTHERS PHOTOS BY BLAKE CONNER AND GOLD & GOOSE ohn Hopkins doesn't differ much from your typical 18-year-old Southem Californian. The pants are baggy, the T-shirt is untucked, rus hat sits backwards on his head. Like most young men of that age, Hopkins also has big plans for the coming summer. He's going to camp. Call it Camp MotoGP, perhaps one of the fastest camps in the world. But, unlike any other camps that teenagers frequent when school lets out for the summer, Hopkins' fellow campers won't be welcoming him with open arms. In fact, Camp MotoGP can be a pretty unfriendly place to new campers. Hopkins, armed with a three-year contract with the Red Bull Yamaha team, will show up for the World Championship trus year, a 2001 AMA Formula USA and a 2000 750cc Supersport title the most gleaming notations on his brief resume. Neither of those items will mean diddlysquat to Valentino Rossi, Max Biaggi, loris Capirossi, or even Kenny Roberts Jr., though Roberts actually showed up in Europe with a less formidable resume. But Hopkins doesn't much care about welcoming parties. He's going there to ride a YZR500 for one of the best teams in the paddock. More importantly, he's going to fulfill a childhood dream of going Grand Prix racing. "Ever since I started following road racing at 11 or 12 years old, that's been my goal in life - to go and be a 500cc World Champion," said Hopkins, who won't turn 19 until May 22 . just days after he competes in the French Grand Prix in le Mans. "I expected to be in the series at 20, 21 - that was the goal I set for myself, so I'm definitely ahead of schedule. It's a big change, but I think it'll be all right. I think it's a good time to get in it, with the four-stroke changes and everything. I'm really motivated to get out there." Ramona, California, is as rural a town as you will find in Southern California. located only 45 minutes or so from the beaches of San Diego, Ramona is a far cry from the coastal towns that neighbor what the San Diego locals refer to as America's Finest City. It's also a far cry from Suzuka, Japan, where Hopkins will line up for the first time against the cream of the crop on April 7 in the Japanese Grand Prix - in front of more spectators than there are residents of Ramona. Nervous? A little. But Hopkins has something that will work in his favor: He's young and naive enough to not let it get to him. He's just going to go do what he's been doing since he was 4 years old. He's going to go race motorcycles and he's not going to be intimidated by the likes of Rossi and Biaggi. He doesn't know any other way. "I'm a little nervous about it, but at the same time I'm anxious to get around the other riders," Hopkins said. According to Red Bull team owner Bob Maclean, Hopkins is the perfect addition to a team that already features Garry McCoy - though McCoy and his freshly broken leg will start the season at less than 100 percent. "It's refreshing having him [John] on the team," Maclean says. "He doesn't come in thinking he knows everything. He's starting with a clean slate and he's willing to listen and learn." And he seems to be a quick study - at least that's what history shows us. J 28 MARCH 13,2002' cue •• All it took to get him started was a trip to Ascot Park in Gardena, California. It was at that famous race place that Hopkins watched rus first race as one of his late father's friends was competing. "I just loved it and couldn't get enough," Hopkins recalls. "Then I saw the 50s go and my exact words were, 'I can do that. I want to do that. Why can't I do that?'" It wasn't much longer before Hopkins took to the Ascot track himself, riding a modified Honda Mini Trail 50 that wasn't exactly state-of-the-art. neVIl's "Out of 18 people, I got eighth place," Hopkins says of that first race. "It was kind of funny because some security guards and other people were walking by when we were unloading the Mini Trail and they said, 'Are you actually planning on racing that thing?' I started racing that like two or three times, and that's when my grandma actually came out and got me a brand-new [Yamaha] PW-50. That was the best gift I've ever gotten." At the time, the Hopkins family lived in Whittier, California, a suburb of los Angeles. A racetrack